Richard Curtis - IMDb IMDb 27 December 2016 8:44 AM, UTC NEWS Richard Curtis was born on November 8, 1956 in Wellington, New Zealand as Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis. He is a writer and producer, known for Love Actually (2003), Bean (1997) and Notting Hill (1999). See full bio » Born: a list of 22 people created 16 Nov 2011 a list of 45 people created 25 May 2012 a list of 22 people created 18 May 2013 a list of 28 people created 10 Feb 2015 a list of 30 people created 13 Oct 2015 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Richard Curtis's work have you seen? User Polls Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 19 wins & 33 nominations.

See more awards » Known For 2015 Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (TV Movie) (written by) 2014/I Trash (screenplay by) 2003 Love Actually (written by) Mr. Bean: The Animated Series (TV Series) (character - 4 episodes, 2002 - 2003) (characters - 1 episode, 2002) 1999 Hooves of Fire (TV Short) 1999 Blackadder Back & Forth (Short) (television series "The Black Adder", "Blackadder II", "Blackadder the Third" and "Blackadder Goes Forth" - uncredited) / (written by) 1999 Notting Hill (written by) 1997 Bean (character "Mr. Bean") / (written by) Mr.

Bean (TV Series) (1 episode, 1995) (written by - 7 episodes, 1990 - 1992) (additional material - 3 episodes, 1993 - 1995) 1986/II Comic Relief (TV Special documentary) (writer) 1986 Black-Adder II (TV Series) (by - 6 episodes) 1983 Dead on Time (Short) (written by) Not the Nine O'Clock News (TV Series) (written by - 5 episodes, 1980 - 1982) (writer - 1 episode, 1982) (gag associate - 1 episode, 1982) - Merry Christmas (2004) ... (co-executive producer) - Summer (2000) ... (co-executive producer) 1992 Comic Relief: Behind the Nose (TV Movie) (executive producer) Hide 2005 Live 8 (TV Special documentary) (organizer) 1994 Mr.

Bean (TV Series) (script editor - 2 episodes) - Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean (1994) ... (script editor) Hide 1984 The Lenny Henry Show (TV Series) (1985) Hide 2008 Blackadder Exclusive: The Whole Rotten Saga (TV Movie documentary) (thanks) 2007 The Comedy Christmas (TV Movie documentary) (acknowledgment: archive "The Vicar of Dibley" courtesy of) 2002 Ali G Indahouse (special thanks) 1993 Chef! (TV Series) (special thanks - 1 episode) - Rice and Peas (1993) ...

(special thanks) Hide 2016 There's Something About Romcoms (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Writer & Director 2013 Made in Hollywood (TV Series) Himself 2013 Cinema 3 (TV Series) Himself 2013 Días de cine (TV Series) Himself 2013 Frost on Sketch Shows (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Writer, Not the Nine O'Clock News 2013 The Richard Dimbleby Lecture (TV Series documentary) Himself 2012 Britain's Funniest Comedy Characters (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2003-2012 Film 2016 (TV Series) Himself 2011 Fry's Planet Word (TV Series documentary) Himself 2011 50 Greatest Harry Potter Moments (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Writer and Director 2011 The One Show (TV Series) Himself - Guest 2010 Doctor Who Confidential (TV Series documentary) Himself 2009 Victoria Wood: Seen on TV (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2009 A Night at the Office (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2008 Blackadder Rides Again

 (TV Special documentary) Himself 2008 Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2008 New Heroes of Comedy (TV Series documentary) Himself 2007 Movie Connections (TV Series documentary) Himself 2007 British Film Forever (TV Mini-Series documentary) Himself 2007 Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2007 Perfect Night In (TV Series documentary) Himself 2007 The British Academy Television Awards (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2007 The Story of Dibley (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2007 Soapstar Superstar (TV Series) Himself 2006 The Xtra Factor (TV Series) Himself 2006 Britain's Funniest Comedy Characters (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2006 Conversations with the Cast (Video documentary short) Himself - Host 2006 The 50 Greatest Comedy Films (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2005 Live 8: A Bittersweet Symphony (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2005 Dokument: Humor (TV Series documentary) Himself 2005 The World

's Greatest Gigs (TV Movie documentary) Himself - Writer 2004 Happy Birthday BBC Two (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2004 Dibley Defrocked (Video documentary short) Himself (uncredited) 2003 Charlie Rose (TV Series) Himself - Guest 2003 The Storytellers (Video documentary short) Himself - Writer / Director 2001 Spotlight on Location: Notting Hill (Video documentary short) Himself 2001 An Interview with Richard Curtis (Video documentary short) Himself 1999 McBeal Appeal (TV Movie) Himself 1997 The Story of Bean (TV Special documentary) Himself 1997 Light Lunch (TV Series) Himself 1990 The Lowdown (TV Series documentary) Himself 2016 The One Show (TV Series) Himself Personal Details Other Works: He contributed to the revue, "Then Again, A New Lyric Revue", at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, London, England with Desmond Barrit , Dawn French , Sheila Hancock , Neil Mullarkey and John Gould (piano player) in the cast.

Neil Bartlett was the director. Alan Bennett , Noël Coward , Dawn French , Jennifer Saunders , Graeme Garden , ... See more » Publicity Listings: 2 Interviews | 4 Articles | See more » Alternate Names: Love Actually Movie Review & Film Summary (2003) | Roger Ebert Tweet "Love Actually" is a belly-flop into the sea of romantic comedy. It contains about a dozen couples who are in love; that's an approximate figure because some of them fall out of love and others double up or change partners. There's also one hopeful soloist who believes that if he flies to Milwaukee and walks into a bar he'll find a friendly Wisconsin girl who thinks his British accent is so cute she'll want to sleep with him. This turns out to be true. Advertisement The movie is written and directed by Richard Curtis , the same man who wrote three landmarks in recent romantic comedy: "Four Weddings and a Funeral," " Notting Hill " and " Bridget Jones's Diary ." His screenplay for "Love Actually" is bursting enough material for the next three.

The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs, until at times Curtis seems to be working from a checklist of obligatory movie love situations and doesn't want to leave anything out. At 129 minutes, it feels a little like a gourmet meal that turns into a hot-dog eating contest. I could attempt to summarize the dozen (or so) love stories, but that way madness lies. Maybe I can back into the movie by observing the all-star gallery of dependable romantic comedy stars, led by Hugh Grant , and you know what? Little by little, a movie at a time, Grant has flowered into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian. He's getting to be one of those actors like Christopher Walken or William Macy where you smile when you see them on the screen. He has that Cary Grantish ability to seem bemused by his own charm, and so much self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as if he took the role to be a good sport. Emma Thompson plays his sister, with that wry way she has with normality, and Alan Rickman plays her potentially cheating husband with the air of a lawyer who hates to point out the escape clause he's just discovered.

Laura Linney plays his assistant, who is shy to admit she loves her co-worker Karl ( Rodrigo Santoro ), who is also shy to admit he loves her, and so you see how the stories go round and round. Advertisement Oh, and the prime minister walks into 10 Downing Street his first day on the job and Natalie the tea girl ( Martine McCutcheon ) brings him his tea and biscuits, and the nation's most prominent bachelor realizes with a sinking heart that he has fallen head over teapot in love. "Oh, no, that is so inconvenient," he says to himself, with the despair of a man who wants to be ruled by his head but knows that his netherlands have the votes. Wandering past these lovable couples is the film's ancient mariner, a broken-down rock star named Billy Mack, who is played by Bill Nighy as if Keith Richards had never recorded anything but crap, and knew it. By the time he is 50, George Orwell said, a man has the face he deserves, and Nighy looks as if he spent those years turning his face into a warning for young people: Look what can happen to you if you insist on being a naughty boy.

Billy Mack is involved in recording a cynical Christmas version of one of his old hits. The hit was crappy, the Christmas version is crap squared, and he is only too happy to admit it. He is long past pretending to be nice just because he's on a talk show. At one point he describes his song with a versatile torrent of insults of which the only printable word is "turd," and on another show when he's told he should spend Christmas with someone he loves, he replies, "When I was young, I was greedy and foolish, and now I'm left with no one. Wrinkled and alone." That this is true merely adds to his charm, and Nighy steals the movie, especially in the surprising late scene where he confesses genuine affection for (we suspect) the first time in his life. Advertisement Look who else is in the movie. Billy Bob Thornton turns up as the president of the United States, combining the lechery of Clinton with the moral complacency of Bush.

After the president makes a speech informing the British that America is better than they are, America is stronger than they are, America will do what is right and the Brits had better get used to it, Hugh Grant's PM steps up to the podium, and what he says is a little more pointed than he intended it to be, because his heart is breaking: He has just glimpsed the president flirting with the delectable tea girl. The movie has such inevitable situations as a school holiday concert, an office party, a family dinner, a teenage boy who has a crush on a girl who doesn't know he exists, and all sorts of accidental meetings, both fortunate and not. Richard Curtis always involves a little sadness in his comedies (like the funeral in "Four Weddings"), and there's genuine poignancy in the relationship of a recently widowed man ( Liam Neeson ) and his wife's young son by a former marriage ( Thomas Sangster ). Their conversations together have some of the same richness as " About a Boy ." The movie has to hop around to keep all these stories alive, and there are a couple I could do without.

I'm not sure we need the wordless romance between Colin Firth , as a British writer, and Lucia Moniz, as the Portuguese maid who works in his cottage in France. Let's face it: The scene where his manuscript blows into the lake and she jumps in after it isn't up to the standard of the rest of the movie. Advertisement I once had ballpoints printed up with the message, No good movie is too long. No bad movie is short enough. "Love Actually" is too long. But don't let that stop you. Popular Blog Posts Love Actually | Christmas Specials Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Blu-ray The cover to the Blu-ray release. Love Actually is a 2003 romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis . The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress. The ensemble cast is composed predominantly of British actors. Set in London, the film begins five weeks before Christmas and is played out in a weekly countdown until the holiday, followed by an epilogue that takes place one month later.

Contents [ show ] Synopsis The film begins with a voice-over from David (Hugh Grant) commenting that whenever he gets gloomy with the state of the world he thinks about the arrivals terminal at Heathrow Airport, and the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends and families welcome their arriving loved ones. David's voiceover also relates that all the known messages left by the people who died on the 9/11 planes were messages of love and not hate. The film then tells the 'love stories' of many people: Billy Mack and Joe With the help of his longtime manager Joe (Gregor Fisher), aging rock and roll legend Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas variation of The Troggs' classic hit "Love Is All Around". Nonetheless he promotes the release in the hope it will become the Christmas number one single. The song does go to number one; after briefly celebrating his victory at a party hosted by Sir Elton John, Billy suggests that he and Joe celebrate Christmas by getting drunk and watching porn.

Juliet, Peter and Mark Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are wed in a lovely ceremony orchestrated and videotaped by Mark (Andrew Lincoln), Peter's best friend and best man. The video he recorded reveals that he secretly has feelings for her. Jamie and Aurélia Writer Jamie (Colin Firth) first appears preparing to attend Juliet and Peter's wedding. His girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) misses the ceremony to be with his brother. Jamie retires to his French cottage where he meets Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz), who speaks only her native tongue Portuguese. There is an instant attraction between the two. When Jamie returns to England he realises he is in love with Aurelia. He learns her native language and goes back to propose to her. When he does propose to her, she says yes, and it is revealed that she been learning English to communicate with Jamie. Harry, Karen, and Mia Harry (Alan Rickman) is the managing director of a design agency; Mia (Heike Makatsch), is his new secretary.

For Christmas he buys her an expensive necklace from jewellery salesman Rufus (Rowan Atkinson), who elaborately wraps while Harry becomes increasingly nervous with the fear of detection. Meanwhile, Harry's wife Karen (Emma Thompson) is busy dealing with their children, Daisy (Lulu Popplewell) and Bernard (William Wadham), who are appearing in the school Nativity, to her brother David (Hugh Grant), who just became Prime Minister, and her friend Daniel, who has just lost his wife. Karen discovers the necklace in Harry's coat pocket and assumes it is a gift for her; Karen later confronts Harry over the necklace, who admits to foolishness. David and Natalie Karen's brother, the recently elected British Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant), is young, handsome, and single. Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) is a new junior member of the household staff at 10 Downing Street and regularly serves his tea and biscuits. Something seems to click between them. David walks in to find the U.S. President attempting to seduce Natalie.

David has Natalie moved, but later comes across a Christmas card "With Love, Your Natalie." He eventually finds Natalie at her family's home, then drives everyone to the local school for the nativity play, the same one in which his niece and nephew are appearing, and the two watch the show from backstage, their budding relationship exposed when a curtain is raised during the big finale. Daniel; Sam and Joanna Daniel (Liam Neeson), Karen's friend, and his stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) fend for themselves, where Sam has fallen for American visitor Joanna (Olivia Olson). Daniel consoles Sam, who is heartbroken over recent news of Joanna's return to the United States, and convinces him to go catch Joanna at the airport. Sarah, Karl and Michael Sarah (Laura Linney) first appears at Juliet and Peter's wedding, sitting next to her friend Jamie. We learn she works at Harry's graphic design company, where she has been in love for years with its creative director, Karl (Rodrigo Santoro). A tryst between Karl and herself is interrupted by Sarah's mentally ill brother, Michael (Michael Fitzgerald), and this effectively ends their relationship.

On Christmas Eve, she loves visiting her brother at the institution where he lives, wrapping a scarf around him as he hugs her. Colin, Tony, Stacey, Jeannie, Carol-Anne, Harriet and Carla After several blunders attempting to woo various English women, including Mia and Nancy (the caterer at Juliet and Peter's wedding), Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) informs his friend Tony (Abdul Salis) he plans to go to the US and find love there. He meets Stacey (Ivana Milicevic), Jeannie (January Jones), and Carol-Anne (Elisha Cuthbert), three stunningly attractive women who fall for his Basildon accent and invite him to stay at their home. Colin accepts. John and Judy John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page), meet as stand-ins for the sex scenes in a movie. John tells Judy that "it is nice to have someone [he] can just chat to." The two carefully and cautiously pursue a relationship, and see the play at the local school together with John's brother.

Rufus Rufus is a minor, but significant, character played by Rowan Atkinson, the jewellery salesman whose obsessive attention to gift-wrapping gets Harry caught buying Mia's necklace. It is his distraction of staff at the airport which allows Sam to sneak through. His character is seen as a sort of guardian angel, as his place in the film is to look out for the other characters. Epilogue In the epilogue, set one month later, the film's characters are seen to be in relationships: love, actually. These scenes dissolve into live-footage of arrivals at Heathrow Airport, which divide the screen and eventually form a heart as the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" plays on. Trivia Thomas Sangster , who played Sam, and Olivia Olson , who played Joanna, would work together again on the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb . Notably, Thomas' character, Ferb Fletcher , has a crush on Olivia's character, Vanessa Doofenshmirtz , similar to Sam's crush on Joanna in this film. Chat show host Michael Parkinson and tv presenters Ant & Dec star in the film as themselves.

The DVD commentary includes director Richard Curtis noting that Olson's rendition of " All I Want For Christmas Is You " was so pitch-perfect that they had to train her to sound more like what one would expect a 10-year-old to sound like. The reason was that Curtis and the production team feared viewers would think that Olson was lip-synching to Mariah Carey. External links AMC Total Ratings: 30 (avg 4.5) Excellent Review I can only presume that the British calendar is so uniquely screwy that it allows for a Christmas movie to open a week after Halloween. Or maybe Love Actually is just in a universe of its own… one in which the prime minister is inaugurated in November and where an adverb can be used to modify a noun. But a little oddness is forgivable: Directing a movie is a strange place for Richard Curtis, who’s written umpteen Brit-friendly movies and TV shows over the years but hasn’t directed one, until now. Little surprise then that Love Actually plays like a Richard Curtis Greatest Hits compilation. The film comprises nine major and barely-connected stories (as near as I can count) revolving around love and the weeks before Christmas.

There’s a morose singleton (Laura Linney) looking for love from a co-worker [ Bridget Jones’s Diary ]. In the most enchanting vignette, there’s the new Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) falling in love with a foul-mouthed servant (Martine McCutcheon) [ Notting Hill in reverse]. There’s even one wedding and one funeral [ Four Weddings And a Funeral ]. And there’s Rowan Atkinson [Bean, Blackadder, et al.]. And there’s more — much, much more. From a company boss (Alan Rickman) being tempted away from his wife (Emma Thompson) to another guy (Colin Firth) who finds his soulmate in a housekeeper (that’s two men falling for maids in one movie!) to a pair of movie set stand-ins who find love under the lights as they coldly play out a sex scene for the cameras. Digesting the rest of the movie would be close to impossible and counter-productive, since it would rob Love Actually of its charm. Too bad then that Love Actually is so derivative that it ultimately turns into a severe case of déjà vu. You sit there (for over two hours) wondering what movie was she in?

and where have I seen this story before? Eventually the answer to both of those questions ends up being some other movie with Hugh Grant in it. Not that I don’t like Hugh. He’s a great comic actor and probably the best part of Love Actually — though Rickman, McCutcheon, and the effervescent Bill Nighy as a faded rock star trying to make a comeback with a cheesy Christmas song all give him a run for his money. The problem is that Curtis has overstuffed this movie with so many storylines that no single star gets a moment to shine. Just when you’re getting into Grant’s entanglement, you are whisked away to Liam Neeson crying over his dead wife. It’s jarring and it’s just too much. Love Actually is never hard to follow — because Curtis doesn’t even bother to make these stories connect beyond a few irrelevant coincidences — but it is hard to really care about three dozen main characters, each with eight minutes of screen time. There’s a fair amount of dead weight here, and Curtis could have easily crafted a stronger package by excising the weaker plotlines.

(And by the way, you should dash any hope of taking the kids to this holiday film: It’s chock-full of nudity and sexual situations.) Curtis’s gags are generally spot-on, particularly after the film finds its footing. A touching finale makes up for some of the earlier dragging, and cameos galore — at least half a dozen — will entertain the movie snobs in the audience. Just don’t go and spoil it by looking up the credits on the Internet. Raise your hand if you like pie. Love Actually: Christmas film (movie) with Hugh Grant Back to top CHARACTERS The film starts a month before Christmas and follows the love lives of a range of different people over the next four weeks.

Some of the main relationships are: - an old pop star (Billy: Bill Nighy), who has a love/hate relationship with his manager (Joe: Gregor Fisher) - a gallery owner (Mark: Andrew Lincoln) who is attracted to someone who just got married (Juliet: Kiera Knightley) - the British Prime Minister (David: Hugh Grant), who is attracted to his secretary (Natalie: Martine McCutcheon) - the Prime Minister's sister (Karen: Emma Thompson), whose husband (Harry: Alan Rickman) is a boss starting an affair with his secretary (Mia: Heke Makatsch) - an American lady (Sarah: Laura Linney) who works for Harry and is attracted to the chief designer at the company (Karl: Rodrigo Santoro) - a father (Daniel: Liam Neeson) whose wife has just died and later decides he needs a new partner (preferably a beautiful model like Claudia Schiffer) - Daniel's stepson (Sam: Thomas Sangster), who has a crush on an American girl at his school (Joanna) - a writer (Jamie: Colin Firth) whose original partner is having an affair with his brother: he goes on to fall in love with

 his Portuguese cleaner (Aurelia: Lucia Moniz) - an actor (John/Jack: Martin Freeman) and actress (Judy: Joanna Page) who are taking part in a sex film - a sandwich delivery man (Colin: Kris Marshall) who is unsuccessful with women in Britain and wants to go to America to get a girlfriend Each of the characters uses Christmas as a time to express feelings which they had been keeping secret.

Although it might not be obvious at first, it seems that love actually is all around ... Back to top ACTORS / ACTRESSES Some other roles which have been played by some of the British actors or actresses in this film are: Hugh Grant plays the British Prime Minister. He also starred in three of Richard Curtis' other films ("Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones's Diary"), as well as in "About A Boy". For a list of his performances, see: . Colin Firth plays the writer. He played Mark D'Arcy in "Bridget Jones's Diary", and Darcy in the television version of Jane Austen's book "Pride and Prejudice". He was also in the recent film version of "The Importance of Being Earnest". For a list of his performances, see: . Rowan Atkinson plays a sales assistant in a jewellery shop. He is a popular British comedian who is well-known for his characters Mr Bean and Blackadder and recently starred in the film "Johnny English" (for more details, see: Britain/Films/English ).

Martine McCutcheon is best known in the UK for playing the character Tiffany in the television soap opera EastEnders. After leaving this, she launched a singing career (one of her most popular songs is called "Perfect Moment") and played the character Eliza Doolittle in a production of the musical "My Fair Lady". Emma Thompson has had many film roles, one of the most famous of which was in "Sense and Sensibility". She will also appear in the third Harry Potter film "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". For a list of her performances, see: . Alan Rickman plays Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films. He was in "Sense and Sensibility" with Emma Thompson. He played the Sheriff of Nottingham in "Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves". For a list of his other performances, see: . Back to top VOCABULARY You should be able to enjoy this film if you are a non-native English speaker. Most of the accents are clear, the stories can be followed quite easily, and there is plenty of music. There is however quite a lot of slang, and you may find the jokes difficult to understand.

Here is some of the vocabulary which will help you to understand, in the order in which it first appears in the film (click on a link to see definitions from the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary): gloomy (depressed); the Twin Towers (the World Trade Centre); maestro ; nativity play (it is traditional for primary school children to perform a play based on the story of the birth of Jesus Christ); lobster ; stag night ; kiddo (slang way of referring to a child); nappies (American English: diapers); the lady of the house; dodgy ; stuck up ; gridlock ; over my dead body ; enigmatic ; wrinkled ; Watford (a large town north of London); smug ; bird (slang way of referring to an attractive woman); crassness ; dark horse ; Christmas number one (the record which sells most copies in the week before Christmas Day); petulant ; the Treasury ; get a grip ; Wisconsin (state in the US); mistletoe (it is a Christmas tradition to kiss underneath this plant); heroin ; veins ; stepfather (stepdad is also used); sissy ; fire away (when you say this, you are inviting someone to start asking you questions); elitist ; Wand

sworth (an area of London); illegitimate ; I'm well shot of him; SAS (the Special Armed Services - top soldiers in the British army who are used in some of the most dangerous situations); Chancellor of the Exchequor ; papier mâché ; eels ; chubby (a slightly more polite way of saying that someone is quite fat); constitution ; Munchies (a sweet); bingo ; self-preservation ; redistribute (here used to mean "send to work in another department"); Kate and Leo (Kate Winslett and Leonardo Dicaprio, stars of the film Titanic); brandy ; Meatloaf (a large male pop singer); Ringo Starr (the drummer in the Beatles); a Bond girl (an attractive woman who stars in a James Bond film); stellar ; Parky (Michael Parkinson, a popular British chat-show host); Blue (a popular British male pop group); stark naked (wearing no clothes); to flirt ; to tug (pull); Jon Bon Jovi (an American rock singer); stationery ; in a flash (quickly); prontissimo (Italian for "very quickly"); cinnamon ; a final flourish ; a sprig of holly ; manger (according to the story of Christmas, Jesus Christ was born

 in a manger); grumpy ; Budweiser (an American beer); Basildon (a town in Kent); a done deal ; Elton John (a popular British singer); kebabs ; carol singers; epiphany ; Chubbs (an invented nickname for someone who is overweight, based on the word chubby); moron ; Plumpy (an invented nickname for someone who is overweight, based on the word plump); octopus ; Dunkin Donut (an American doughnut chain of shops); Prince William (the eldest son of Prince Charles, the Queen's eldest son) In several parts of the film, differences between British English and American English are highlighted.

For example, Americans often call someone they find attractive "cute" or might think the British accent is "cute", but British people usually only use the word "cute" for a baby or young child. The following songs are included on the soundtrack album: 1. Jump (for my Love) - Girls Aloud 2. Too Lost In You - Sugababes (soundtrack version) 3. The Trouble With Love Is - Kelly Clarkson 4. Here With Me - Dido 5. Christmas Is All Around - Billy Mack 6. Turn Me On - Norah Jones 7. Songbird - Eva Cassidy 8. Sweetest Goodbye - Maroon 5 9. Wherever You Will Go - The Calling 10. I'll See It Through - Texas 11. Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell 12. White Christmas - Otis Redding 13. Take Me As I Am - Sharissa 14. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Olivia Olson 15. God Only Knows - the Beach Boys 16. All You Need Is Love - Lynden David Hall 17. Sometimes - Gabrielle 18.

Glasgow Love Theme - Craig Armstrong 19. PM's Love Theme - Craig Armstrong 20. Portuguese Love Theme - Craig Armstrong The original version of All You Need Is Love was by the Beatles (for more information about British music, see: Britain/Music . Christmas Is All Around is a comic version of the song Love Is All Around (written by Reg Presley of the Troggs; Wet Wet Wet did a well-known cover version).

This is a comparison of the words of the first verse: Love Is All Around BRITISH POLITICS Some basic facts which will help you to understand some of the political references in the film: - The British Prime Minister lives (together with his/her family) at 10 Downing Street - The current Prime Minister (in 2003) is Tony Blair, who has a wife and children - Tony Blair's wife had a baby in May 2000 (this is why there is a reference to nappies in the film) - A famous previous Prime Minister was Margaret Thatcher (you can see a portrait of her in the film) - The government department which deals with financial subjects is called the Treasury - The head of the Treasury is called the Chancellor of the Exchequor - The Cabinet refers to the top group of politicians in the government, who meet to make important policy decisions - Since the Second World War Britain and the US have worked closely together; Winston Churchill called this the special relationship Back to top OTHER RICHARD CURTIS FILMS Richard Curtis also wrote the screenplays for these films (Love Actually is the first film which he has also directed): 1989 - The Tall Guy 'Love Actually' Script Editor

 Reveals Movie’s Secrets, Like What Happened With Karen and Harry’s Marriage 'Love Actually' Script Editor Reveals Movie’s Secrets, Like What Happened With Karen and Harry’s Marriage Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman in ‘Love Actually’ (Everett) By THR Staff On Saturday night, director Richard Curtis and his family went to see a midnight screening of his film, Love Actually.

His partner Emma Freud said it was the first time Curtis was seeing the movie in a cinema since the premiere in 2003. Freud, who was a script editor for the film written and directed by Curtis, live-tweeted the viewing that had only four other people in the audience. Her tweets provided insights into different plotlines and scenes in the movie, the biggest one being what happened with Karen (Emma Thompson) and Harry’s (Alan Rickman) relationship at the end of the film. In the movie, Harry cheats on Karen with his secretary Mia. Karen finds out and confronts him, but the movie’s ending leaves their relationship status ambiguous. “Good to have you back,” she tells him with a half-hearted smile at the airport. When a fan asked Freud to clarify the ending, she said that the couple does in fact, stay married. @JPerlstrom they stay together but home isn’t as happy as it once was. — emma freud (@emmafreud) December 13, 2015 Freud also said that Harry did completely cheat on Karen with Mia, another fact that was ambiguous to viewers in the movie. @carlotta429 DEFINITELY had an affair.

i begged richard just to make it a flirtation, but no. the whole way. — emma freud (@emmafreud) Related: 9 Holiday Rom-Coms to Satisfy Your Christmas Cravings Here are some other tidbits Freud revealed at the screening: Richard only called colin firth’s character 'jamie’ so the kids could say 'I hate uncle jamie’. His brother is called jamie. #LoveActually — emma freud (@emmafreud) Movie Review - - FILM REVIEW; Tales of Love, the True and the Not-So-True - NYTimes.com FILM REVIEW; Tales of Love, the True and the Not-So-True By A. O.

SCOTT <p> Published: November 7, 2003 ''Love Actually,'' which opens today nationwide, is an indigestible Christmas pudding from the British whimsy factory responsible for such reasonably palatable confections as ''Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' ''Notting Hill'' and ''Bridget Jones's Diary.'' A romantic comedy swollen to the length of an Oscar-trawling epic -- nearly two and a quarter hours of cheekiness, diffidence and high-tone smirking -- it is more like a record label's greatest-hits compilation or a ''very special'' sitcom clip-reel show than an actual movie. The air is thick with bad pop songs, which those plucky, ironical Britons seem to love in spite of their badness. A sparkling British-American cast of newly minted and long familiar stars chirp, swoon, pine, quip and shed the odd tear. Presiding over it all is the new prime minister, a twinkly bachelor with a tonsorial resemblance to Tony Blair, who is played by none other than Hugh Grant. As he did in the far superior ''About a Boy,'' Mr. Grant makes a climactic onstage appearance at a school talent show.

He also sings ''Good King Wenceslas'' and disco-dances around 10 Downing Street in his shirt sleeves. In his opening voice-over, Mr. Grant establishes a new standard for bad taste masquerading as its opposite when he introduces this fluffy farrago, written and directed by Richard Curtis, with a reference to the World Trade Center attacks. The phone calls made from the towers, he suggests, show that however perilous the state of the world, ''love is all around.'' Further support for this thesis is gleaned from the arrival gate at Heathrow, where people tend to hug and kiss each other a lot. Like much else in ''Love Actually,'' you almost buy this moment of banal sentiment, because it is so prettily shot and smartly spoken. But the film's governing idea of love is both shallow and dishonest, and its sweet, chipper demeanor masks a sour cynicism about human emotions that is all the more sleazy for remaining unacknowledged. It has the calloused, leering soul of an early-60's rat-pack comedy, but without the suave, seductive bravado. The worst kind of cad is the one who thinks he's really a sensitive guy deep down.

Most of the picture's half-dozen or so romantic subplots -- which lie scattered about like torn wrapping paper on Christmas morning -- involve workplace dalliances of one kind or another. The ones with the best chances of success all involve an older male boss and a young female subordinate. Jamie (Colin Firth), a writer cuckolded by his own brother, retreats to a villa in the South of France and falls for his Portuguese housekeeper, Aurelia, who speaks no English and who obligingly strips down to her underwear to rescue manuscript pages that have blown into the lake. Harry (Alan Rickman), the head of a nonprofit organization, is besotted with his secretary, Mia (Heike Makatsh), who makes no secret of her attraction to him. The prime minister, moral exemplar of the nation, develops a crush on Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a member of the Downing Street household staff. When the goatish president of the United States, in London for a state visit, puts the moves on her, the P.M.'s jealousy precipitates a chill in British-American relations (and also makes him a national hero).

The funniest and most winning on-the-job romance bubbles up between two people (Martin Freeman and Joanna Page) who work as body doubles on a movie set, miming explicit sex scenes in the absence of the prudish stars. As their naked bodies go through the motions, the two of them chat mildly about traffic and the weather, and their mutual attraction is sealed, on the first date, by a chaste kiss on the cheek. The other genuine comic spark comes from Bill Nighy, playing a washed-up, dissolute rock star named Billy Mack, who is trying for a comeback with a treacly Christmas record. Billy says shocking, hilarious things in television and radio interviews, and his casual indifference to proper decorum makes him the most honest character in the film. The problem is that the movie, more than any of the characters in it, is a mess of crossed signals, swerving between cynicism and sincerity without quite knowing the difference between them. It is most grotesque when it tries for earnest drama, parading the grief of a widower (Liam Neeson) and the humiliation of a middle-aged wife (Emma Thompson) before us when it thinks our throats need lumping. It is disturbing to see Ms.

Thompson's range and subtlety so shamelessly trashed, and to see Laura Linney's intelligence similarly abused as a lonely, frustrated do-gooder. The fate of their characters suggests that women who are not young, pert secretaries or household workers have no real hope of sexual fulfillment and can find only a compromised, damaged form of love. Perhaps Mr. Curtis wishes to offer this as an insight into contemporary social arrangements; if so, his indifference to the cruelty of those arrangements is truly breathtaking. But it is unlikely that any particular insight was intended. Instead, ''Love Actually'' is a patchwork of contrived naughtiness and forced pathos, ending as it began, with hugging and kissing at the airport (where returning passengers are perhaps expressing their relief at being delivered from an in-flight movie like this one). The loose ends are neatly tied up, as they are when you seal a bag of garbage -- or if you prefer, rubbish. ''Love Actually'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sex, nudity and profanity.

LOVE ACTUALLY Written and directed by Richard Curtis; director of photography, Michael Coulter; edited by Nick Moore; music by Craig Armstrong; production designer, Jim Clay; produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Duncan Kenworthy; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 128 minutes. This film is rated R. WITH: Alan Rickman (Harry), Bill Nighy (Billy Mack), Colin Firth (Jamie), Emma Thompson (Karen), Hugh Grant (Prime Minister), Laura Linney (Sarah), Liam Neeson (Daniel), Martine McCutcheon (Natalie) Heike Makatsh (Mia) Rowan Atkinson (Rufus), Lucia Moniz (Aurelia), Martin Freeman (John) and Joanna Page (Just Judy).

Question: Who wrote and directed the 2003 film "Love Actually"?
Answer: Richard Curtis